When King George I came over from Hanover in 1714 to claim the crown he had inherited from his distant cousin Queen Anne, he was accompanied by his mistress of more than 20 years, Melusine von der Schulenberg. George’s wife Sophia Dorothea was left behind in Germany. She had made the mistake of taking a lover of her own not long after George had embarked on his affair with Melusine, forgetting that by the double standard that then prevailed in courts, it was acceptable for a man to have mistresses, ‘but shameful indeed to be a cuckold’.
Sophia Dorothea had flaunted her infatuation with the glamorous adventurer, Count Konigsmark, and wildly compromising letters between the pair were intercepted. In July 1694 Konigsmark had disappeared on his way to an assignation with Sophia Dorothea, having almost certainly been murdered on the orders of George’s father. Soon afterwards George had divorced his wife and imprisoned her for life in a remote castle.
On his arrival in England, George’s domestic arrangements naturally became the focus of much interest.
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